Freeport shooting victim Timothy McGraw 'was a great guy’

FREEPORT — Timothy McGraw, 48, was shot in the jaw while sitting with his daughter on a neighbor’s porch at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night. He died 29 minutes later, according to an autopsy performed Tuesday by the Stephenson County Coroner’s Office.

FREEPORT — Timothy McGraw, 48, was shot in the jaw while sitting with his daughter on a neighbor’s porch at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night. He died 29 minutes later, according to an autopsy performed Tuesday by the Stephenson County Coroner’s Office.

His 9-year-old daughter also was shot but not seriously injured. She has been released from a Rockford hospital.

Police are saying little about the crime, the city’s second homicide this year. They have made no arrests and are not sure of a motive.

“Everybody liked Tim,” said neighbor Ozzie Davis, who was asleep when McGraw was shot. “He didn’t do anything. He was dependable. We talked every day.”

For more than a year, McGraw was the night supervisor at the Freeport Area Church Cooperative Liberty Avenue Mission, said Executive Director Dean Wright. The mission is a nine-bed emergency shelter for single men, affording them a place to sleep for a few nights so they don’t end up on the street.

McGraw lived at the mission until about a month ago when he rented a room in house in the 700 block of South Liberty Avenue. The neighbor’s house where he was shot was across the street.

“He was a great guy,” Wright said. “It’s a tragic loss. It (the violence) has got to stop. If you want safe neighborhoods and the violence to end, you’ve got to do something.”

McGraw’s daughter, who lives in Chicago, was visiting her father for the summer, Davis said.

“There are people who know what happened, they just don’t want to say anything,” Davis said. “I don’t know if they are scared or just don’t want to do it, but he was just sitting on the porch. I wish I knew what happened, I’d sure tell. The worst part is that they shot the little girl.”

Police encourage anyone with information about the homicide to call them at 815-235-8226 or call Crime Stoppers at 866-647-7669.

Sunday’s homicide was Freeport’s second shooting death in 2013. Clerk Adel Ahmed Al-Masmari was killed May 27 at the South Galena Avenue Convenience Store after being shot once. That murder remains unsolved and police are still looking for suspects.